Monthly Archives: June 2014

I wish I could tell you that my Juneathon activities have involved new paths taken, trails explored, and exciting adventures along the way, but in reality the closest I’ve come to being Hobbit-like is by way of a typo.

Hobbit Habit.

As in a creature of.

So my tale of ‘There and Back Again’ is not nearly as interesting. In reality, it means I’ve taken the same route for walking / running pretty much the whole time. With a couple of exceptions, I generally stick close to home – the nearby park, the streets close by, and the parkrun course. I run there, and I run back again.

(I did get a bit excited last week visiting ‘The Wizard’s Bar’, but figured a business function may not be the most appropriate time for a selfie with the dragon mural)

Normally I am more than OK with it. Consistency is key and all that. I enjoy my runs / walks – I know the tracks well, the best spot to cross a busy road, the distance, and areas that are open and well lit.

I guess I just figured that for Juneathon I should try mixing it up a bit.

So in the spirit of new things, off I trotted for an organised group run with strangers. I even had my reflective stripes and (new) flashy-torch with three settings. (Did I mention it was a night run? I know, right? So adventure-y of me!)

Take that, familiar safety and routine! New paths come at me; I am in your hands.

So off we ran…

…to the park near my house. And back again.

*sigh*

Actually I had to laugh – I could have popped home for a drink we were that close.

But I did it, and it was also great meeting new people and being pushed to keep running when I normally would have stopped at 5k.

So adventure aside, I guess the lesson is that my usual trails are fine. I’m still running and doing other Juneathon-y stuff. I’m not terribly good at blogging about it regularly, but it is happening.

There and back again: a tale of habit.

It may not be worthy of a movie adaption; but for a wannabe (off and on again) runner, it actually isn’t so bad after all.

On my walk today (a quick 3k) I got to thinking about a question posed via #RunChat on Twitter: “Sunrise or sunset? Which would you rather see on your run? Why?”

My answer: Sunset.

Why? Part of the reason is that I find it’s a nice way to wind-down after a long day. Plus, they’re so pretty! And right…there. This one was just hanging around waiting for its photo to be taken last week:

iPhone out, click, done. See? Easy.

I guess if I’m being completely honest though, a bigger part of my preference is that sunset running doesn’t involve ‘rising and shining’ and being all chirpy at a time when it feels unnatural. But that’s just me.

I’m more of a night person, and therefore find running at sunrise is so, so much harder (and also – don’t they involve mountain trekking or beaches or other inspiring things?). Plus, seeing a sunrise takes planning and warm layers and coffee drinking and…well…just getting up early in general.

And there it is: getting up early.

I know it’s easy for others, and there may be people *eye-rolling* at this (sorry), but here’s the thing:

I try, I really do, but am not your typical early-morning riser. So much so, that I have dreamt of a truck backing-up and making that beeping noise (as they do). This can last for ages, but in my dreams I’m OK with it (take your time, Mr Driver. It’s cool, reversing can be hard).

Yeah…so…that ‘beep, beep’? That’s my alarm clock.

(Turns out I can incorporate pesky noises into my dreams and just keep sleeping through. It’s a gift and a curse)

Switch to music as an alarm, you say?

Nope. Cue dreams of performing onstage, singing my heart out to whatever happens to be on the radio that morning (apparently I’m an extrovert in my dreams. Go figure).

It doesn’t always happen that way of course, but it’s often enough for me to start setting multiple alarms when I need to get up any earlier than say…6:30am. Either that, or ask ‘J’ (who’s usually already up) to come in and roll me onto the floor. And that never ends well.

So you see – the odds are against me. That’s how much I love my sleep.

But Juneathon is about mixing things up, and I’m up for the challenge: